While the Foundation has recently launched its proprietary website, we have learned that citizens from certain countries are blocked from seeing it. Therefore, we will continue to list Universal Human Commonalities and proprietary research on this blog, as well as on our website at http://www.fgcnp.org/uhc and http://www.fgcnp.org/research
The Role of Universal Human Commonalities in the Global Peace Movement
A research paper by Amanda Scherker (2010 Press Liaison Intern). It is published by the PeaceWomen Project as “part of the 1325+10 PeaceWomen initiative to compile a repository of papers dealing with a broad range of issues around the implementation of 1325, as part of the Women, Peace and Security: From Resolution to Action Geneva High-Level Consultation 15-16 September 2010, Geneva.”
This paper examines the uniquely human tendency to make prejudgments based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, and other categorical divisions. It then will consider the ways such primitive instincts manifest themselves in prejudice and violence, which impedes peace building efforts on community, national and international levels. The paper will then discuss research in behavioral studies and negotiation, and conflict resolution tactics and will endeavor to identify potential solutions to this seemingly intractable perpetuation of hatred, degradation, and marginalization. Finally, it outlines the approach adopted by the Foundation for Global Collaboration and Peace, specifically our emphasis on raising awareness of basic, fundamental, and overarching human commonalities that transcend structural and biological differences amongst members of the human race.
A Wall of Survey Analytic Graphs
1,287 people participated in the 5-question survey about primary self-identity that took place during the course of the latter three weeks of November 2009.
The respondents represent 82 nationalities with longest residence in 69 countries, covering every continent with the exception of Antarctica.
At least 80% of the respondents chose a more confined category than Planetary or Species.
Of the top five countries with the most number of respondents, for the Species category, the French and the British vie for the first place while the American and the Indians for third, leaving the Canadians last.
Click here to read the full report in pdf format.
Thank you again to everyone who participated!
Wendy
I think it is extremely hard to pick ONE group that we identify with. Most people will define themselves along a variety of different lines. Personally, I would have liked to pick several of the options – gender, national, academic, professional, class, etc.
I think that for most people, the identity that is most prominent varies on a frequent basis, largely depending on what they are doing and the specific social situation they are in, e.g. at work, with friends, with family, etc.
I understand that you’re trying to get some useful data and so some degree of simplification is inevitable, but did you consider offering an option to rank ‘my top 3 identities’ or something of the sort?
All the best in your endeavours.
Thank you for your well wishes and comment on the survey.
As you had pointed out, identity is a very complex subject matter. Most of the time, we belong to several overlapping groups all at once, and how we identify ourselves can change according to the situation in which we find ourselves or the question that’s being asked.
Having this in mind, what I am asking in this survey is in fact your top identity of choice, i.e., the group that you most identify with or that which comes to your mind first when seeing the question.
I completed your survey and I agree with A.R. Spoon “…the identity that is most prominent varies on a frequent basis, largely depending on what they (people) are doing and the specific social situation they are in”.
I choose what came to my mind first while I was reading your question, and it was related to what I had in mind at that moment. Would I have answered an hour before or an hour later, I would have written something different.
So the top identity of choice, really depends on the context you are in, and your thoughts at that instant. And this can change from one minute to another.
I wish you all the best
Hi Frederique,
Thank you very much for your comment. I’m glad to see that the survey is giving occasion for us to reflect on the question of our identity, because I think this is a subject that most people often neglect to think about. At the same time, it’s at the crux of how we live our life and interact with others.
I deliberately left the survey vague because I don’t want to direct people into thinking one way or another. This is a survey about YOUR primary identity. At the same time, the aggregate answers tell me if there is a pattern people tend to fall into. So, even though telling me only your top identity of choice gives me an incomplete picture of you as an individual, it does give me a good picture of society as a whole.
[...] In mid December of last year we discovered that we’d received over a thousand responses to our “"What is Your Primary Self-Identifier" survey”, furthermore publishing the survey results was exciting as [...]